No deaths in Boulder County were ruled homicides in 2012, the first time the entire county has gone a year without a murder since at least 1999.

While it is still compiling its annual review, an official with the Boulder County Coroner's Office said no deaths in 2012 were ruled homicides. The county typically sees an average of about 3 to 5 homicides a year. Since 2000, the highest number of homicides was eight in 2009 and the fewest was just one in 2003.

The Boulder County Coroner's Office would not provide records to determine the last year that Boulder County didn't see any homicides. Nor did it provide records for the years 2010 or 2011."Every homicide is such an enormous tragedy for the community, so the fact we didn't have any in 2012 is very heartening and a good thing," said Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett. "In a county of over 300,000 people that there were no homicides is unusual."

Garnett said he has seen violent crime trending downwards in general throughout the county, and credited local law enforcement and proactive measures.

"We have excellent police departments and a community very involved in keeping the community safe, so it's not surprising to me crime rates have been low overall."

Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner said a year without any murders is something the department strives for.

"We always try to get through the year without any homicides, that's always a goal of ours," said Boulder police Chief Mark Beckner. "We do have years like that occasionally, but it's more common that we have one or more during the year."

Beckner said the key is for the Boulder police to establish their presence in areas where violent crimes like homicides might happen.

"It's just continuing to do what we try to do, be visible around when and where violent crime happens," he said. "And when it does happen, we try to quickly solve it and get it prosecuted to send a message that violent crime is not going to be tolerated here."

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said because the sample size is so small, it is hard to draw conclusions or pinpoint specific factors that cause the number of homicides to change year by year.

"The numbers are so low that you have to be very careful about drawing trends," Pelle said. But he did agree with Garnett that violent crime in Boulder County is lower than in most counties and is continuing to trend downward.

"We have generally over the course of the last three or four years seen a decline in almost all categories of crime, but that is not the case nationally," Pelle said.

While 2012 did not see one homicide, there were several cases in which drivers have been charged with careless driving resulting in death and in one Longmont case vehicular homicide. But most auto accident deaths are ruled accidents by Boulder County Coroner Emma Hall, who is the only person who can declare a death a homicide.

There were several homicide trials in 2012, with Garnett's office taking five murder cases to trial in Boulder County. Three of those defendants -- Kevin McGregor, Michael Clark and George Ruibal -- were convicted, Adam Rascynski was found not guilty and a mistrial due to a hung jury was declared in the trial of Charles "Eddy" Waters.

While Garnett said it is good for his deputies to get experience with murder cases, he is grateful that at the moment he doesn't have any on the docket for 2013.

"It's important for my office to have the experience to try a homicide case well," he said. "But it would be great for the community if we never had to try a homicide case," he said.

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